Last night on Ugly Betty Justin, her teenage nephew finally came out after years of speculation. The way it was handled on the show was sensitive, delicate and romantic. Justin had been in slight denial of his sexuality and was really just figuring it out. With the support of his family he came out on his terms and I swear I could see the weight being lifted off his shoulders.
He was at his Mother's wedding, the setting was romantic and beautiful. People were dancing and his boyfriend was there as his guest, but both appeared uncomfortable and awkward. You could see that Justin was deep in thought and after a final word from his beloved Aunt Betty encouraging him not to be afraid, he went to his boyfriend and extended his hand romantically inviting him to dance and that's all there was to it.
It got me thinking about Constance McMillen, the gay teen who was denied access to her prom because she wanted to bring her girlfriend. She challenged the school and in a move out of the fuckhead playbook, the idiot school decided to nix the prom for everyone. Period.
Naturally this made poor Constance pretty unpopular amongst several of her fellow students. While some showed their support, others were understandably upset and unfortunately channeled their anger towards Constance and not the fuckheads at the school where it belonged.
I'm not going to pull out a soap box about this. My feelings are simple. You love who you love. End of story. The real world requires us to exercise tolerance. Tolerance for the jerk in the cube next door who always screams when he's on the phone and doesn't think about the people around him. Tolerance for the slow ass people who work at the DMV. Tolerance when speaking to people with heavy accents. Tolerance of jerks who whistle at any female that walks by a construction site. Tolerance for the people who turn their blinkers on a half mile before they actually make their turn. Tolerance for the people who walk through a door that you were only holding so they wouldn't get smacked in the face, but instead of grabbing the door, they walk through as if you were a doorman, then don't bother to thank you. Tolerance for lousy tippers. Tolerance for holy rollers who think everyone needs to be saved. Tolerance for people who don't understand other religious beliefs. Tolerance for senior citizens who probably shouldn't be driving, but are. Tolerance for the idiot teenagers who cruise the malls making asses of themselves with their juvenile antics and behavior. Tolerance for the list that goes on and on.
We have to exercise a bit of tolerance every day. The best time to begin to teach this valuable lesson is when our children are still young. These are tools that will help them in their lives, so why are there schools who refuse to teach tolerance and acceptance of sexual difference? It seems so simple to me, yet the waters get muddied with separation of church and state talk, and how offensive it is to others who don't believe in same sex coupling. The real world exists of people who are different. This is what makes us special. This is how we learn from one another and learn to understand and accept.
That's all I have to say about that.
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